Markets update: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar

Bitcoin dropped to an eight-week low on Tuesday, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value, sank to a more than one-year trough as they continued their bearish trend, undermined by a strong U.S. dollar and global tensions related to Turkey.

The Turkish crisis has dampened risk appetite in recent sessions, spurring a sell-off in emerging market currencies and stocks and prompting inflows to safe-haven assets such as the dollar and U.S. Treasuries.

The original virtual currency fell as low as $5,880 on Bitstamp, the lowest since late June. It was last down 3.5 percent at $6,036.74. So far in 2018, bitcoin has fallen nearly 57 percent, after soaring more than 1,300 percent last year.

On Thursday morning the cryptocurrency market is a sea of red with all the top 50 coins in negative territory.

This has led to the value of the entire market falling 5.5% since this time yesterday to US$194.2 billion according to Coin Market Cap.

While crypto giant Bitcoin (BTC) has plunged lower and at one stage dropped below the symbolic US$6,000 mark, the declines have been much more severe among the alt coins.

This decline could have been triggered by comments from the president of Hong Kong-based Bitcoin wallet company Xapo.

Its president, Ted Rogers, tweeted that “We could be in the midst of the extinction-level event for “cryptoassets” that many maximalists have predicted. 90%+ of CoinMarketCap list will disappear eventually – might as well happen now.”

The Bitcoin price has recovered slightly and is down just 2.6% over the last 24 hours to US$6,130.67, leaving it with a market capitalisation of US$105.5 billion.

The Ethereum (ETH) price is down 9.1% since this time yesterday to US$263.13 per token. This reduces Ethereum’s market capitalisation to US$26.7 billion.

The Ripple (XRP) price is 5.6% lower during the period to 26.55 U.S. cents, leaving the alt coin with a market capitalisation of just under US$10.5 billion.

The BitcoinCash (BCH) price has tumbled 8.4% since this time yesterday to US$490.55. The Bitcoin spin off now has a market capitalisation of US$8.5 billion.

The Stellar (XLM) price is off 5.5% over the last 24 hours to 21.41 U.S. cents. This reduces Stellar’s market capitalisation to just over US$4 billion.

Outside the top five things were equally bleak. The EOS (EOS) price is down 5.7%, Litecoin(LTC) has fallen 7.2%, Tether (USDT) has edged almost 0.1% lower, Cardano (ADA) has plunged 12%, and Monero (XMR) has lost 11.2% of its value.